Every year millions of medical patients around the world acquire infections during their hospitalization. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recognize lack of hand hygiene amongst healthcare workers as the primary cause of hospital-acquired infections. As a result of this, medical facilities around the world attempt to measure the hand hygiene compliance of their staff. Other industries such as the food, education and transportation sectors also attempt to measure hygiene dispenser usage.
Most industries currently measure hand hygiene through inaccurate means. Such conventional means include volumetric consumption over time or manual observation. The conventional techniques and devices all have drawbacks: some operate only with specific dispenser models, others require gross modifications in user workflow, others are highly inaccurate, while others provide no means for identifying the user responsible for dispenser use. Other deficiencies of conventional approaches include an inability to report that fluid was actually dispensed, an inability to determine if a hand was properly used to trigger the dispenser, an inability to determine whether a catch basin is full or near to capacity, an inability to provide usage feedback, and an inability to determine the identity of nearby people, among other disadvantages. In some cases, users may purposely position their hand sideways so that sanitizer solution is dispensed, but misses their hand. Such actions purposely circumvent compliance efforts and increase risks of infections.
The compliance problems are complicated by the many different soap and sanitizer dispenser models available on the market, none of which have the capability of providing true compliance with regulations. Accordingly, a need remains for an improved apparatus, system, and method for facilitating hand hygiene compliance measurement, increasing hand hygiene, and reducing healthcare facility-acquired infections. Embodiments of the inventive concept address these and other limitations in the prior art.
The foregoing and other features of the inventive concept will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.